


Life, Liberty, And The Pursuit of Zombies

by Abbikazoo



Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Eliza is a cinnamon roll, F/M, George Washington is a Dad, How Do I Tag, Inspired by Fanart, Oooh I found how to tag, everybodies crazy, they really need to get more sleep though
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:21:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 8,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26446258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Abbikazoo/pseuds/Abbikazoo
Summary: The Hamilton Zombie story nobody asked for. Our favorite nerds stuck in a zombie apocalypse.
Relationships: Aaron Burr/Theodosia Prevost Burr, Alexander Hamilton/Angelica Schuyler, Alexander Hamilton/Elizabeth "Eliza" Schuyler
Comments: 12
Kudos: 30





	1. The Sickness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which we meet our characters.

Day One

Aaron picked up his tray, smiling at the lunch lady. He went and sat in his usual seat, between Hercules and Eliza.

"I just think it's weird," Alex was saying. He sat opposite Aaron, with John on his right and Angelica on his left. 

"What do you mean?" asked Hercules, poking his salad with a fork. 

I mean it's weird that people aren't worried. People are being put in the hospital, nobody knows how it started or how it's spreading, there isn't any cure, and nobody's concerned! Did you know there's a hundred and fifty cases in our state alone? But nobody in the government is saying anything!"

"They probably don't want to cause panic, mon ami," said Lafayette. His real name was Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, but everybody just called him Lafayette. He set down his tray, biting into his hamburger like it was the most delicious thing in the world. 

"How you can eat that, I'll never know," said Angelica, rolling her eyes.

"It's American, what did you expect?" quipped John.

Lafayette and Alex were exchange students, Alex from the Caribbean, Lafayette from France. They were staying at Hercules's house for the year, and Lafayette was obsessed with all things American. 

"As I was saying," said Alex, glaring at Angelica and John. "It can't just be panic. Have you ever noticed nobody comes back?"

"He's right," Angelica remarked. "John Adams, you know, the really whiny kid on student council? He got it a week and a half ago, and nobody's seen him since."

"See? And Herc's uncle got it last month. When we asked the hospital about him, they said they were "keeping him under observation." And we can't visit him or anything!"

"They're probably trying to slow the spread," said Aaron, speaking up for the first time. He wasn't as tight with the group as Lafayette or Angelica. He only started sitting with them because Eliza had found out he was eating in the library and insisted. 

"My dad has it, but he's refusing to see anyone about it," John said. "He thinks going in to see a doctor is "a sign of weakness."" He rolled his eyes as he air quoted.

"That's not strength, that stupidity," Angelica said, raising an eyebrow. 

"I didn't say I agree with him!" John said defensively. 

The bell rang for the end of break. Aaron looked down at his tray sadly. He had gotten so wrapped up in the conversation he hadn't eaten more than a bite of his lunch.

"I have an apple you can have," whispered Eliza. "I'm sure Mr. Washington won't mind." He smiled gratefully. 

They walked away towards their next class together, Aaron quickly forgetting about the sickness as his mind moved on to the biology test he had later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I honestly don't know if anyone will read this, but here you go! Comment if you like!


	2. First Encounters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which we meet our first zombie, and Alex needs to sleep

Alexander woke to a pounding on his window. John was standing outside, a panicked expression on his face. 

Alex glanced at his alarm clock. 3:19 AM. He sighed, opening the window. "This had better be good. I just got to bed an hour ago."

"Alex...Help...Ran over...As fast as I...Could...Zombies!" 

"Okay. I was following you up to the zombie part."

"My dad...The sickness...He's a zombie!"

"Okay. Calm down. Come in here." He helped John through the window. He said a silent prayer of gratitude that he had let Lafayette have the bedroom on the second floor. 

"Now breathe," he said, wrapping a fuzzy green blanket around John's shoulders. John wasn't wearing anything besides some flimsy pajamas, and his was shivering so badly he was making the whole bed vibrate. Even though it was almost May, the nights still got pretty cold.

After John had sucked in a few breaths of warm air, he seemed calmer, though still very afraid.

"I woke up because I needed a drink. When I got to the kitchen, my dad was there, but he seemed...wrong, somehow. So I said his name, and he turned around, and--Oh Alex!" He buried his face in the blanket.

Alex hesitated, not sure what to do. He wasn't exactly known for being warm and comforting. That was Eliza's job.

"Okay. You just had a nightmare. A scary nightmare, but a nightmare. Come on, I'll walk you home."

He lent John a pair of his shoes--way too big, but better than nothing--and a jacket, breathing a sigh of relief when John told him his house was only two blocks away. Alex had never been to John's house, and had imagined a thirty minute walk out in the cold before he could get back to sleeping. 

When they got to John's house, the door was open, which struck Alex as odd. Surely John's parents would have closed it. 

'They're probably still asleep,' he thought to himself. Satisfied, he went inside and shut the door.

He dropped John off at his room, and was about to leave when he heard a strange noise. It was a sort of sucking, smacking sound that made his skin crawl instinctively.

He turned around slowly. The sound seemed to be coming from another room, the door slightly ajar. He padded noiselessly to the door, gently pushing it open a bit more. 

By the dim light of the moon peeking around the curtains he could see a large form hunched over, moving slightly from time to time. As his eyes adjusted, he could see another form sprawled on the floor, some kind of liquid seeping into the carpet around it.

Alex leaned closer, squinting. The floorboard beneath him squeaked.

The hunched figure turned sharply, rising to its full height. The moonlight hit its face, and Alexander could see it. Its hair was a limp, greasy mop, its lips looked like dried out worms, and its crooked nose was... falling off? Alex stumbled back, knocking a tall lamp to the floor.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A crash came from outside John's room, startling him out of his doze. He opened the door to find a thing standing over Alex, slowly advancing closer. Alex sat on the floor, frantically pinching himself on the arm, as if that would make him wake up. John did the only thing he could think of.

He grabbed one of the too-big shoes and threw it at the thing. He missed. John quickly picked up the other shoe and threw it as well. He missed the thing, but hit a picture frame off the wall behind it. The thing turned around to look at the picture, giving John enough time to run over, grab Alex, (who was muttering to himself, over and over, "Thisisadreamthisadreamthisadream") and run back to his room, slamming the door behind them.

John dashed around the room, pushing things against the door. For once he was glad his room was such a mess, a fact his father often lectured him on. He winced, trying not to think about his dad.

He grabbed his phone and sat next to Alex, who was now rocking back and forth on the floor. Not being able to think of anything else, he called 911, fully expecting to be laughed off the phone. Surprisingly, the lady at the other end seemed to take him seriously, asking for his name and address, and saying a team would be over in about ten minutes.

The next while was a blur. An ambulance showed up, caught the thing, and put it in the back of the truck. They covered his mother with a sheet and another ambulance came to take her away. By the time the police came in to question Alex and John, Alex was calm enough to give a report and offer to let John to spend the rest of the night at his house. "I'm sure Mrs. Mulligan won't mind," he said. 

The police officer nodded and drove them back to Alex's house, promising to get in touch in the morning. After he drove away, the boys climbed back through Alex's window. Exhausted, they both collapsed on the bed and slept until Hercules's mom came to get Alexander up. Needless to say, she was quite confused when she found double the boys there was when Alex went to bed the night before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah. Chapter two. I hope the scariness comes through in the chapters ahead, I'm somewhat new to writing. I probably won't be posting so often, I just had the next chapter ready. Thank you for all the kudos you've left, they really make my day!


	3. Panic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which our peoples go to school, and we find you shouldn't try to shove 11 people in a five seat car.

Day 2

Ah, lunch. On the one hand, it was Angelica's favorite part of the day, because she got to see Alex. She was a year ahead of him, and all his classes were inconveniently on the opposite side of the building, not that she had looked at his schedule or anything. Like, how juvenile would that be?

And anyway, as she had told herself, several times, she was fine. Eliza liked him, and Eliza so rarely liked anyone that Angelica wasn't going to try and take this away from her. That was the downside of lunch. Pretending that she wasn't interested in Alex, all while having to look at his stupid, irritating, gorgeous face.

Angelica shook herself out of that train of thought, sitting down next to John. He was doodling in a notebook, his mind obviously elsewhere. She tried to focus on the conversation, something about if Twenty One Pilots was better than Coldplay. The debate seemed less heated than usual, and it took her a moment to realize it was because Alex wasn't taking a side. He was picking at his food, as distracted as John. 

"I'm just saying, Sky Full of Stars is way better than anything Twenty One Pilots could come up with," Hercules said, stabbing a cherry tomato with his fork.

"Um, Sky Full of Stars was 51 in the top 100 songs the year it came out, Stressed Out was number 5," retorted Eliza. Angelica smiled. Eliza rarely got in an argument about anything, but when it came to Twenty One Pilots, she could get really worked up.

The debate was cut short by a sudden shift in the atmosphere of the room. It was as though the temperature had either been raised ten degrees or dropped twenty. A large crowd had gathered by the tall bay windows on the east side of the room.

"What's happening over there?" asked Aaron. Angelica stood up. "I'll go see."

She pushed her way over. "What's going on?" She asked her little sister, Peggy, who was standing by the edge of the crowd.

"I'm not sure. I think there's some weird animals walking by the school."

Angelica shoved through the group, ignoring the angry yelling that followed. It was hard to see through the rain that had been pouring all day, but there was definitely something moving out there, across the street. Angelica squinted, leaning so her face was up against the glass. It looked like a group of people slowly approaching the school. But they didn't seem right. Their skin was gray, their clothes torn, and they moved in an odd limping walk. Her eyes widened and she stumbled back. Around her, shouts went up as people saw the same thing she did, the word passed around like an infectious disease. Zombie. 

She ran, grabbing Peggy's hand and racing back to her table. 

"What is happen-" Lafayette was cut off as Angelica grabbed Eliza and plowed right through. 

"Zombies!" she screamed over her shoulder. "Come on!"

John and Alex immediately ran after her, dragging Hercules, Aaron and Lafayette behind them. They were almost to the doors leading out to the faculty parking lot when they crashed into someone.

"Where are you kids going in such a hurry?" asked Mr. Washington, the 11th grade English teacher.

"Mr. Washington...Zombies...Got to believe me!" panted Angelica.

"What?" he asked skeptically. Behind him Lafayette leaned towards Hercules. "What is a zombie?" he whispered. Hercules waved him off.

"She's telling the truth, sir," said John, coming up by Angelica. "My dad got the sickness, and last night, he-" He turned away, unable to finish.

"I saw it too," added Alex.

"Okay, I'll humor you. There are zombies. Now where are you going?"

Angelica paused. "I hadn't really gotten to that part."

Mr. Washington sighed. "Okay. Go ahead. You're lucky it's almost the end of the school day, and that you ran into me and not Mr. Conway. Otherwise you'd probably all have detention."

"Thank you so much!" Angelica shouted as they raced passed. "You should leave too!"

Angelica shoved open the doors and hurriedly ushered everyone out into the rain. They darted out onto the sidewalk. Lafayette gasped as he saw the zombies approaching from around the right side of the building. "Des mort-vivants?" 

"Yes! There's zombies! Keep moving!" Angelica yelled at him, already across the street.

They sprinted down the road, but the zombies had seen them, and their stumbling walk turned into a stumbling run. The kids ran faster, but John tripped, tumbling to the wet pavement. When he tried to get up, he immediately fell back down. He hissed, grabbing his ankle. "I think it's twisted," he said, biting back tears of pain. They all looked at each other, unsure of what to do. A small grey car pulled up beside them.

"Get in!" yelled Washington. Hercules grabbed John by the arm and pushed him into the front seat, sliding in next to him. Eliza, Lafayette and Aaron pushed into the back of the car. Peggy grabbed the sun-roof and slid it open, squeezing through so that half her body was out on the top. 

Alex ran around to the back of the car, pulling open the trunk. He ducked inside, yelling for Angelica to get in next to him. She blushed, then scolded herself. They were in the middle of a crisis. Now was not the time to be thinking about being stuck in a dark trunk with her crush.

Just as she was about to get in, she heard a voice from behind her, shouting "Wait! Wait!" 

Alex groaned beside her. "Of course. Out of the five hundred students in the entire school, we had to run into these two." Angelica turned around. Running towards them as fast as their legs could carry them were two boys. The shorter one was unknown, but she vaguely remembered the taller one from her world civ class. What was his name? Theodore? Timothy?

The taller one pushed into the back seat, crawling on the floor. The shorter one blushed, obviously embarrassed by his friend's antics. "Could we catch a ride with you?" He asked hopefully. 

"No," said Alex quickly. Angelica elbowed him. "Of course you can," she said. "But we need to go!" She pointed at the fast approaching zombies, the nearest one less than fifty feet away. 

She scrambled into the trunk, yanking the lid closed. A moment later the car started moving, so she assumed the other boy had gotten in. Alex muttered something about good for nothing rich kids.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. Ta-da. Honestly, I'm was really tired when I started writing this chapter. Hopefully I'll get a chapter or two out every weekend, depending on my mood.


	4. Safe House

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I which our peoples decide what to do next, and Peggy. (Is very annoyed)

Peggy tilted her head back, savoring the cool rain on her face. She had always wanted to do this, stick her head out of a sun-roof. She twisted around, looking back at the zombies. They were slowly falling behind, the nearest one now about two hundred feet away. She turned around and squinted. The hospital was up on a big hill ahead of them, and she could see people streaming out. No, not people. Zombies.

Her eyes widened as she put two and two together. She pulled her head back into the car, and instantly wished she hadn't, as the car smelled like a bunch of wet boys. She wasn't sure how Eliza could stand it. Remembering why she went down in the first place, she took a deep breath of air from outside and quickly addressed the boy with the twisted ankle.

"Did you say your dad turned into a zombie after he got the sickness?" she asked.

He turned back to look at her and nodded. "He was fine for about a week, but he...turned last night." 

Peggy nodded. "I think it's everybody. I can see the hospital up ahead, and there's zombies pouring out of it."

"I wonder what happened," said Eliza. "The sickness has been happening for three months, why would they break out of the hospital now?"

Nobody seemed to have an answer, and Peggy went back up. Following the trail of zombies with her eyes, she gasped and went down. "Turn left, now!" she yelled. 

"What?" Washington asked. "Why?"

"There's another hoard heading this way! At our current rate, we'll run right into them!"

Washington cursed and yanked the wheel to the side. "Monsieur Washington!" exclaimed the French kid.

"What?" Washington snapped. 

"I didn't know you knew that word!" He sounded delighted.

Washington slammed his head against the steering wheel. "In all my years of teaching, this is definitely the. Worst. Day. Ever." He made a quick turn and sped into a neighborhood. After about three minutes the car pulled up in front of a large two story house with a nice front yard.

The kids tumbled out of the car, landing on top of one another. Peggy got out and opened the trunk, raising an eyebrow at them as they hastily pulled out of a kiss. She knew Eliza had a massive crush on Alex, and she had suspected Angelica did as well. This only confirmed it. Deciding she would leave it be, she went up to the house. 

Three dogs had run out, and Washington was laughing as they jumped on top of him and licked his face. Peggy smiled. He didn't seem like the type to laugh a lot. He got up, straightening his coat. "Come on, let's go inside," he said to the kids still piled by the car. They walked in and he led them to a kitchen.

"My wife is on a business trip, so it's just me and the dogs," he said, scratching the grey one on the head. "This is Trulove. The black and white one is Drunkard and the brown one is Madam Moose." Peggy giggled as she watched Madam Moose, a poofy little dog, walk up to Washington and jump up on his lap.

"I think the first order of business is to have everyone introduce themselves. I'm Mr. Washington. I know Alexander, Lafayette, Aaron, Eliza and Angelica. Who are the rest of you?" He sounded surprisingly calm given the situation. If she didn't know any better, she would think she was in a class on the first day of school. 

"I'm Thomas, and this is James," said a tall boy with poofy black hair and a purple shirt, indicating himself and the shorter boy next to him. James coughed into his sleeve.

"I'm Angelica. This is Eliza and Peggy."

Peggy bristled. She was always tacked on at the end like an afterthought. It was part of the reason she had distanced herself from her sisters in high school; to make her own identity. 

"Ooh! Ooh! Je m'appelle Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette. You can call me Laffayette. This is Hercules, John, Aaron, and Alexander," he rattled off without taking a breath.

"Alright. Now that we all know each others names, we should think of what to do. Who has thoughts?"

Alexander immediately began talking. "Okay. I think we should go to our respective houses and gather up all the supplies we can, then report back here. After that we can plan more."

Thomas rolled his eyes. "I'm sure we don't have to do all that. The authorities are probably rounding up the zombies as we speak. This won't last more than a day. We should just go back to our homes and lock up tight until the crisis is over."

"No. I agree with Alexander. We should gather supplies. We don't know the police have a plan. They could be as lost as we are," Angelica said. 

Thomas snorted. "So we have to drive to our houses, load up supplies, cart them here, and then, when the all clear comes in about five hours, haul them back? With one car?" 

"No, we have to drive to our houses, load up supplies, cart them back here, and then, when the all clear doesn't come for a week, we have stuff to eat," retorted Alex. Growing bored of the debate, Peggy glanced out the window. She stopped breathing. 

"Um, guys? We can't do anything right now."

"Why?" asked John.

"Because there's a large group of zombies outside, tromping through the rose bushes to get to the house."

Washington jumped up and ran the window. He groaned. "Oh no. Those are Martha's favorites."

"Seriously? There are zombies, ATTACKING THE HOUSE, and you're worried about the flowers?" asked Hercules, running to make sure the door was locked.

"They won't get in. The door is reinforced with steel, and the windows are bullet proof. The people that lived here before us were very paranoid. Who knew it would be a good thing?"

They watched for hours, but the zombies didn't go away. Eventually night fell, and Washington directed everyone to rooms so they could go to bed. Squished between Eliza and Angelica, with Madam Moose laying on her stomach, Peggy fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again! Thank you for all the kind comments and kudos, they're so sweet. And if you're wondering, yes, George Washington did have dogs, and yes, one of them was named Madam Moose. The other two names are accurate as well.


	5. Stocking Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which our peoples gather supplies, and Washington needs a vacation. And a raise. And lot of hot chocolate.

Day Three

George woke to a crash. He groaned, checking the clock. It was six fourteen. On a Saturday. Why was he awake?

Another crash jogged his memory. That's right. He had had the brilliant idea to let, what was it, ten high schoolers stay at his house so they would be safe from the zombies. As yelling voices drifted through his door, he briefly considered pushing them all out and letting the monsters have them. At least then he could sleep. 

George walked out into the kitchen and took a quick head count. Alex was standing on a chair, shouting at the boy named Tomas. Hercules, James and Angelica were sitting on a long bench by the still closed curtains, occasionally calling out to one boy or the other. Eliza stood behind the bar making bacon and eggs while Lafayette watched with fascinated eyes. Peggy sat on a stool in the corner, checking her phone. John and Aaron had not yet emerged from their rooms.

George whistled loudly, cutting through the chatter. "I don't know what you're fighting about, but I'm sure it's not as important as deciding what to do next. Alex, why are you on the chair?"

"Because he's shorter than me," Tomas said smugly. Alex glared at him. "I was making a point," he said stiffly as he got down.

"Peggy, can you check to see if there's any updates from the governor or somebody?" George asked. Peggy frowned. "I would, except the internet's down. There's no signal either." 

The rest of the kids checked their phones, with equally unhelpful results. "Even in a crisis, the phone lines shouldn't be down already," commented James as Eliza sat a plate of eggs on the table. Angelica checked out the window, pulling back the curtains for the first time that morning.

"Um, guys? You should probably see this." Striding over, Washington looked out at...the apocalypse.

Bodies littered the road, lying in pools of blood and guts. Windows were smashed in, flower beds were destroyed, and doors had long, bloody scratches down them, as though the undead had tried claw through. Telephone poles were tilted, knocked over by the hoards of zombies still wandering through the streets. The main group had moved on, and he could see smoke from fires burning in the distance.

But the worst part was that, as he watched, some of the bodies on the ground started twitching. They pulled themselves up, gaping holes in their heads and bodies. Some were missing limbs. One's chest had been completely ripped open, exposing lungs and a pumping heart, spurting out blood with each beat.

George tripped back, falling over the chair Alex had previously been standing on. Eliza gasped. From his right, he could hear someone renching.

Angelica yanked the curtains closed. They all sat, gasping for breath. After about fifteen minutes, everyone had gathered themselves and James cleaned up the vomit. They sat around the table, eggs forgotten. Nobody thought they could eat after that. 

"Okay. I think it's safe to say no help is coming for a while. And even if some is, it's better to be prepared than starving." George looked around at the kids, waiting for objections. None came. Even Tomas was silent for once.

"I think how to best do this is in shifts. I'll drive two of you to your homes, and you'll grab supplies. The rest of you will hold down the fort while we're gone. Then we'll come back, I'll take two more, and we'll go until we've gone on everyone's houses. Okay?"

The kids all nodded or murmured words of agreement. After a couple more minutes they had worked out the details. Tomas had insisted he go first, so Washington took him and James. They were supposed to grab a weeks worth of clothes, some tools, and all the food they could fit in the back of the car. After them was John (who insisted they bring his pet turtle, Margaret), and Angelica, who was gathering things for her sisters as well as herself. The last two were Aaron and Alex, who was getting stuff for Lafayette and Hercules. 

All was going well until they got to Hercules's house. Alex ran in, George holding a baseball bat picked up from Tomas's house, Aaron clutching a kitchen knife. Suddenly, from behind him, a small noise caught George's attention. It sounded like...crying?

He turned, trying to find the source of the disturbance. He checked the zombies. There were two on the street, a female wearing a hot pink shirt stained with blood and dirt, and a male with no legs, crawling along the ground towards them. Neither had made the noise. 

Alex came out of the house, carrying a stack of pots and pans. George motioned for the two boys to be quiet and come closer. "Do you hear that?"

They listened. Aaron slowly nodded. Alex cocked his head, and his eyes widened. He dashed to a house across the street. Aaron and George sprinted after him. 

Alex threw open the door. "Phillip?" he yelled desperately. The sobbing stopped. "Alexander?" came a timid voice.

Alex ran up the stairs and into a room on the left. Coming in after him, George saw someone peeking out of the closet. Alex opened the closet door wider to reveal a small boy, probably about nine, huddled on the floor in a blanket. He was clutching a stuffed camel in one hand, a dinosaur model in the other. Alex hugged the boy, gently speaking soft reassurances. Gradually he was able to coax the story from the child.

The boy, named Phillip, had just gotten home from school and was eating a snack when the zombies hit. His mom had screamed at him to go and hide while she fought them off. He had ran up to his closet, and had to sit, listening to his mother's screams as the zombies killed and devoured her. He had stayed perfectly silent while they staggered around his room, and had only now started crying. 

Alex picked him up with suprising gentleness, carrying him out of the house and back towards the car. The glare he sent Aaron and George's way clearly said, "If you protest, I will bang you on the head with a pan and leave you for the zombies." Neither protested.

When they got back, Eliza took one look at Phillip and scooped him up into her arms. She took him back to one of the bedrooms and put him to bed, as he obviously hadn't slept in some time. The others took a quick vote, and it was unanimous; Phillip would stay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I messed around with Phillip to make him fit better. I wanted to have him while keeping the others as teenagers/young adults, since I think they're better that way. Less messy grownup stuff. It's within my rights as a writer.


	6. Close Encounters of the Second Kind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which James and Aaron make a strange alliance.

Chapter Six

Day Nine

The next week was spent in tense waiting. After a while of nothing much happening, besides a mild bout of food poison from a strange mac ‘n cheese dish Lafayette had made, James suggested they try the grocery store for food. Washington, who had instructed them to call him George, banged his head on the desk several times at the fact they hadn’t thought of that yet.

George decided that the first thing to do was to get a bigger mode of transportation. Aaron quietly offered up his neighbors car. 

“They have, well, I guess had, seven kids. Their car has fifteen seats. That should give us enough space to hold anyone who goes, and all the supplies they get.”

Everyone was silent for a moment. James thought about the poor family that had previously owned the car. Then Thomas broke the silence.

“Well, the car isn’t going to get itself. Do you know where they kept the keys?” James shook his head at his friend’s callousness. He knew it was just his way of coping, but it didn’t do him any favors in the endearment department.

“Yeah. They would invite us over for dinner a lot, and I saw the keys. Their mom made the best mashed potatoes…” he trailed off.

“Well, come on,” said George.

It was decided that George would drive, Aaron would come to find the keys, and James and Thomas would come to fend off any zombies they found. Well, that and because Thomas insisted.

They pulled up in front of Aaron’s house. Sure enough, a big red van was in the driveway of the house next door. It looked untouched. James supposed zombies didn’t need to drive.

They found the door locked, and the windows smashed in. The brown residue of dried blood stained the remaining shards clinging to the sides. James shuddered. He didn’t handle blood well. Even dried blood.

George bashed the lock of the door with the baseball bat, which he had claimed as his own and Stranger Things-afied. After three swings, the door was battered enough for Thomas to kick down, which he promptly did. “I’ve always wanted to do that,” he grinned.

They cautiously stepped inside. George led the way with his bat, Thomas followed with a hatchet he had gotten from the garage, Aaron held a slingshot they had found in Phillip’s room, and James, lacking anything more capable of damage, held an AP Geography textbook. It was better than nothing.

Aaron edged his way into the kitchen, which was a mess of spoiled food and dry houseplants that hadn’t been watered for days. Curious, James crept up the stairs. On his left, a door with pink flowers painted on it stood open. Peering in, he saw it was a little girl’s room. There was a purple rug over the hardwood floor, My Little Pony toys scattered everywhere.

The scene would have been normal, even cute, if not for the little hand, severed from its body, lying on the ground next to the closet. James swallowed hard and closed the door.

He turned around and came face to face with a little girl. Well, more chest to face. The girl couldn’t be older than four. She wore a tattered yellow nightgown with blood all down the front, her feet bare and twisted at odd angles. She stared up at him, her sickly grey face starkly contrasting her dark, tangled hair, which was matted with blood from a large gash in her skull. With a jolt of horror, he realized her left arm ended in a messy stump.

Slowly, he eased the door behind him open again and backed into it. The little girl followed him, stumbling over her ruined feet. Carefully, he reached down and picked up one of the toys from the floor and held it out to the girl. She took it, and promptly put it in her mouth, chewing at the plastic. She sat down, ignoring James. He tiptoed around her to the door, shutting it quietly behind him.

“Oh, there you are. What were you doing up there?” asked Thomas. James realized they had all been waiting for him and blushed.

“There’s a little zombie girl up there,” he said, his voice barely more than a whisper as he went down the stairs.

Aaron’s eyes widened. “Nathalie?” he asked.

“I don’t know. She wasn’t exactly in a state to tell me her name.” He sank to the floor, rattled.

Aaron rushed past him, peeking into the room. He came out, visibly shaken. “We can’t just leave her there!”

“Yes, we can, and we will,” said George.

“But-”

“We can’t afford to keep a little zombie girl as a pet. She may be cute and harmless now, but what happens when she grows up into a big zombie? We can’t exactly have a one running around the house. What happens if she gets hungry and decides one of us looks like a good appetizer?”

Aaron looked frustrated. “But we can’t leave her to be stuck here until she starves to death!”

“Do you not remember that a zombie’s diet of choice is US? And anyway, she’s already dead.”

“I can make her deader, if you want. That way she won’t be suffering, and we don’t have to have a pet zombie,” Thomas offered.

“No, no. You’re right. Let’s just leave.”

James stared at him suspiciously. “You sure you’re okay with this?”

“Yeah. You guys are right. We can’t adopt every stray zombie child we come across. Come on, let’s go.”

They all trooped out to the car. Suddenly Aaron halted. “Wait. I just remembered. Eliza asked me to see if I could find a medicine kit for her. She says she needs some more painkillers and things for John’s leg.”

James nodded as he recalled the meeting from the day before, where people had been given various jobs. Eliza had proved herself to be a good medic, first when she had attended to John’s ankle, wrapping it up in a splint and instructing him to use it minimally, and second when she had helped everyone with their food poisoning. (Except Thomas, who hadn't got it. He claimed he had never had food poisoning before and certainly wasn’t going to start now. James tried to explain to him that that wasn’t how food poisoning worked. As usual, he hadn’t listened.)

Peggy had been given the job of look-out, as she had already been doing it, sort of. Everyone had voted George in as team leader, seeing as he was the only one of them over twenty. Alex had been tasked with repairing any mechanical malfunctions, and it was decided that Hercules would be the cook. They figured they would give other people jobs as needed.

James was pulled back to the present by George’s voice. “Fine. But make it quick. I want to raid the store by night. James, go with him.”

Aaron grabbed a large duffle bag. “What?" he asked as they all stared at him suspiciously. "They may have a bunch of stuff we need.”

James walked back to the house with him. Aaron ran upstairs and went into a bathroom, pulling a medicine kit out of the cupboard.

“Here. You take this back to the car. I need to grab some stuff from the master bedroom real quick."

James raised an eyebrow but said nothing. He walked down the stairs, being sure to make a bunch of noise. He opened and shut the front door, and then quickly turned around and stealthily crept up the stairs again. He crouched behind the bathroom door.

He watched as Aaron cautiously came out of what he assumed to be the master bedroom and walked down the stairs. He came up a moment later, gingerly carrying a piece of rotting meat. He cracked the little girl’s door open and laid the meat on the floor. A few seconds later, the girl, Nathalie, came out and sniffed at the meat. She picked it up and tore into it, her little teeth sharp and surprisingly white.

Aaron crept up behind her and scooped her up, shoving her into the bag. He sighed, and then jumped as James stood up in front of him.

“Please don’t tell! She’ll die on her own!”

“Aaron. She’s not a person anymore. She’s a dangerous animal. One that could kill you, and me, and everybody else.”

“Not if I train her! Dogs used to be wolves, and those are dangerous animals. But George has dogs,” he argued.

“That’s different. His dogs are already trained. They aren’t going to kill anyone.”

“Please, James? What if we find a cure or something? We could save her!”

“Aaron, cures take years to be developed. And that’s when they’re being researched on by hundreds of highly trained scientists, not a bunch of high schoolers and an English teacher!”

Aaron just stared at him, his puppy dog eyes turned on to the fullest extent. James rubbed his forehead. He felt like he was getting a headache. He didn’t like confrontation.

“Fine. I’ll help you. But if she attacks anyone, that’s on you. And if we get found out, I’m going to say I tried to stop you, but you didn’t listen, so it’s not my fault.”

“Of course. Thank you so much!” Aaron seemed on the brink of hugging James, but restrained himself. “Help me get this out to the car?”

Between the two of them, they didn’t have much trouble getting the bag into the back of the car. Because James was helping him, George and Thomas didn’t suspect a thing. Whenever Nathalie made a noise in the back, James would cough loudly. Once again, George and Thomas didn’t notice, as James was always sick.

When they finally got home, James and Aaron were quick to carry the bag inside the house and down the stairs to the room they shared with Thomas. Aaron motioned for James to move back and quickly unzipped the bag.

Nathalie burst out of the bag, running around the room in a wild, agitated frenzy. The boys stood pressed against the wall, too terrified to move. Nathalie’s eyes locked on them. She hissed and lunged. Both boys dodged, diving to opposite sides of the room. Nathalie crashed into the wall and stumbled back, dazed.

“Quick, go get some meat!” Aaron yelled. James whipped the door open and found himself about to plow down Eliza, who had just lifted her hand to knock. He slammed the door closed behind him. “Hi Eliza! What did you need?” he asked brightly, his voice cracking.

“Um, Hercules made dinner. I was coming down to get you.” She looked at the door behind him. 

“Of course! Uh, Aaron is working on something right now. I’ll go grab some dinner for him and then bring it down.” He quickly grabbed her arm and steered her towards the kitchen.

“What’s he working on?”

“Oh, you know, boring stuff, some homework project.” He grabbed two plates of meatloaf and darted back down the stairs. “Thanks Hercules, it smells amazing!” 

He knocked on the door. “It’s me.”

“Come in, quick!”

He opened the door to find their room trashed. The bed was stained with blood, probably from Nathalie’s head injury. The pillows were ripped open, spilling their fluffy guts onto the floor. The blinds were hanging, half torn from the windows. A picture of the ocean on the wall had been pulled down, the glass shattered. Aaron sat on top of the bookcase, which was fortunately bolted to the wall. Nathalie was nowhere to be seen.

James cautiously closed the door. “Where is she?”

Aaron pointed a trembling finger towards the bed. Frowning, James knelt to look. Nathalie was crouched underneath, chewing on a paperback book. She growled at him as he slid a plate towards her. He left it at the edge of the bed and crawled away, keeping his eyes on the child.

She slowly advanced on the food. In a swift motion, she grabbed a bit with her good hand and stuffed it in her mouth. Deciding she liked it, she reached for the plate and dragged it under the bed with her. The boys could hear the sounds of her chomping and smacking as she gobbled the food down. When she was done, she poked her head out from under the bed, sniffing around for more.

“What on Earth is that?!”

James spun to see Eliza, holding a hand to her mouth as she clutched the doorknob.

“Close the door!” Aaron shouted from the bookcase. Eliza seemed frozen. James went over to her and closed the door. “Okay. You can’t tell anybody.”

“Can’t tell anybody what? That you decided it would be a good idea to adopt a small ZOMBIE CHILD?!”

James clapped a hand over her mouth. “Shh! Yes. That’s what you can’t tell anybody. Aaron knew her before she became a zombie and insisted we bring her back.” He wrinkled his nose. “Wait. How did you know we were doing something down here?”

She motioned to his hand on her mouth. He took it away and she took a deep breath. “I knew you were hiding something because you suck at lying.” He shot her a dirty look and she raised her hands in defence. “Don’t look so offended! You are! I mean, homework? Really?”

Aaron looked down at them. “You told her we were doing homework... while we’re in the middle of an apocalypse, and all of our teachers besides George are probably zombies?”

“I panicked! She was asking too many questions!”

“I literally asked one question.” Eliza sighed and rubbed her face. “I won’t tell, as long as you let me help you.”

Both boys nodded quickly. Eliza went upstairs to grab more meatloaf.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi all! Sorry it's been so long, stuff's been crazy. To make up for it, I gave you a extra long chapter. Hope you don't mind. I honestly wasn't intending for Nathalie to be such a major character, it just sort of happened.


	7. Grocery Shopping

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which our peoples find out they're not alone.

The day after Aaron and the rest got the car back home they decided it was time to go grocery shopping. George originally only wanted two or three of the teens to come with him, but Thomas insisted he had to go, and then Alex did, so Hercules and the other boys did, and then Angelica refused to be left behind… All and all, by the time they finally left, everyone except Eliza, Aaron, James, and Phillip was in the car (much to Phillip's annoyance).

"Besides," Alex pointed out. "This way we can have more people gathering supplies, so it will go faster, while also having people guarding us so we don't die."

The neighborhood was strangely quiet and empty, with only a couple of the undead staring curiously out at them from various alleys and buildings.

"I don't like this," said Angelica, shifting uncomfortably in her seat. Hercules had to agree. He had helped Peggy keep watch a couple times, and there was always at least five just in their street; what else was to be expected, when their whole city of about two thousand people had been turned into mindless killing machines? But this was different. The air felt charged, like right before a thunderstorm.

They crawled forward at about five miles per hour, since George had to navigate around a bunch of abandoned vehicles. Finally they got to main street, not that it made them go any faster. If anything, it slowed them down, since there were even more cars left here. 

A flash of movement to his right caught Hercules's eye, and he turned to look more fully out the window. There wasn't anything there, but Peggy turned her head to look at the same time, so he quietly nudged her shoulder.

"You see something?"

"No...I guess not. Unless you saw something?"

Hercules quickly shook his head, not wanting to seem too paranoid or jumpy in front of the younger girl.

He faced forward again in time to see the zombie dashing down the road to meet the car head on. George instinctively slammed on the brakes, but wasn't fast enough to stop from hitting the zombie, blood spraying across the windshield. Hercules quickly closed his eyes, willing himself not to be sick.

From the back of the car he heard a dull thud, then another. Then from his window came a loud boom, accompanied by the sharp sound of glass cracking. He opened his eyes slightly, and immediately wished he hadn't. More gore dotted his window, and he could see the undead woman stumbling back, blood running down into her eyes.

"George, drive!" screamed Angelica.

"But-"

"Just run them over!" yelled Alex.

George abruptly pushed on the gas pedal, and the car shot forward, plowing through the ranks of bodies pouring into the road from either side.

They careened around the road, probably to avoid cars. Hercules wouldn't know, as he was clutching his seatbelt and chanting "We're gonna die we're gonna die we're gonna die we're gonna die" over and over while squeezing his eyes shut as tight as they would go.

After what seemed like a million years of screaming chaos, but was probably only thirty seconds of screaming chaos, he heard Thomas start shouting. "There's the store! Now brake _brake brakebrakebrakebrakebrakebrakeBRAKE_!"'

Hercules flew forward, his seatbelt the only thing keeping him from crashing into the seat in front of him and breaking his neck. The back of the car rose off the ground slightly, and the screaming went up an octave before the tires fell back to the ground.

They sat in stunned silence for a moment, then George called out, "Anybody dead or seriously injured?" Slowly answers came back in the negative, voices shaky. "Good. Then let's get in the store before the zombies come back," he said, his tone surprisingly calm and stable.

They piled out of the car and ran up the front doors. They were boarded up, nails peeking through. George swung his bat, shattering the glass. He pushed against the boards, but the barricade held firm, the boards not even creaking. He started to attack it with his club, but it was slow going, and the zombies were getting closer. 

Hercules dashed around the store, trying to see if there was another door or something. About halfway around the side, he saw a small open window, about four feet above him. He cocked his head, trying to gauge if he would be able to fit.

As he studied it, Angelica came around the corner. "What are you doing back here? George wants us all working to find a way in the doors!"

"Uh huh," he said, still staring at the window. "Angelica, do you think you could fit through there?"

"What?" She glanced up. "No, but Peggy could." Suddenly it seemed to click on her brain. "Oh!" 

She ran back around the corner, appearing after a moment with Peggy in tow. "Help me give her a boost."

"A boost where?" Peggy asked, sounding confused and a little alarmed.

"In that window. We need you to open the doors from the inside," Angelica explained, lacing her fingers together. Hercules followed suit, and Peggy carefully stepped on their hands, bracing herself against the wall as they lifted her up.

She squirmed through the window and went in through the other side, crashing into something as she fell.

"You okay?" shouted Hercules worriedly.

"I'm fine," her voice floated back to them. They ran around to the front, where George and the others hadn't made much progress. The undead were only a hundred feet away now, and Alex and the other boys had gathered in a shield position around George, clutching their makeshift weapons. Thomas held his hatchet, Alex had borrowed the slingshot, John used a long kitchen knife, and Lafayette brandished a frying pan. Hercules shook his head. He knew watching Tangled was a bad idea.

Hercules and Angelica joined the group, pulling out a broom and a long, sturdy steel cord, respectively. Thomas looked at Angelica's weapon, eyebrow raised. In answer to his unspoken question she whipped it at the nearest zombie, tangling it around the walker's ankles and throwing it off its feet. She snapped the rope against the ground to bring it back to her and curled the rope back around her forearm. The boys were suitably impressed.

The walkers drew closer, and the teens held them off as best they could. George frantically bashed against the wood, and from the inside, Hercules could hear shouting and banging. He frowned as he batted a zombie's head off. It sounded like there was more than just Peggy in there.

The wood finally gave way, allowing for a small gap in the boards. "Come on!"

Lafayette squeezed through first, then Thomas and John.

"Go!" Alex yelled at them, shooting another walker in the forehead. Hercules, Angelica stared at each other, each willing the other to go first.

"Oh fine, go be the heros," Hercules grumbled, running for the door.

He slithered through the hole, feeling hands grab him and pull him through. Angelica and Alex followed after a moment of heated discussion Hercules couldn't quite catch. George came through last, and a large piece of plywood was slammed over the opening, smashing some fingers that had managed to get in. An strange boy held the board, grunting as he braced himself against the flood of undead pounding against it. Two girls frantically hammered in nails around the edges, while a fourth kid grabbed more boards.

Eventually the hole was boarded back up, and the unfamiliar kids sat down, catching their breath.

"What's going on here?" came a haughty voice from in the back of the store. Hercules looked up to see a young man in a tattered red uniform come out from the office. He glared at the newcomers before arching an eyebrow at the four teens on the ground. 

One of the boys scrambled up to his feet and quickly addressed him. "Sorry George, we heard them banging, and this one came in through the window," (here he pointed at Peggy) "And Theodosia insisted we had to help!"

The man in the uniform looked at the taller of the girls.

"I won't apologize. Humans need to stick together," she said defiantly, putting her hands on her hips.

"I'll say," said the shorter girl, staring hungrily at Alex. Angelica glared at her.

Their George sighed. "Fine. Whatever. Do as you must." He sashayed back into his office, closing the door just quietly enough to not be counted as a slam.

"I'm sorry about him," said the girl called Theodosia. "He worked at the store before everything collapsed, so he put himself in charge."

"Yep. It's a sad existence, but at least we have food," said the boy who had spoken before. Hercules judged him to be about 18. 

"George is very nice to let us stay. You shouldn't be talking about him like that."

This came from the pale, sickly boy still on the floor. He pouted and crossed his arms.

"Oh, shut up Sam." Theodosia rolled her eyes. "I suppose you'll be staying for a while?"

A bang echoed through the new boards and George winced. "Yeah, that'd probably be best."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, once again, I'm so sorry I'm late updating, school's been a pain. I was only able to do this chapter cause winter break. Hopefully I'll be better at updating, but...
> 
> Okay, I'll stop talking. As always, comments and kudos and appreciated!


End file.
